Inquiry into Cameron House fire opens with mother’s statement

The mother of one of the men who died when a fire ripped through the Cameron House Hotel on the banks of Loch Lomond, in December 2017 has told an inquiry she felt “tremendous guilt” that she was not able to help rescue her son and his partner.

A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) into the blaze that claimed the lives of Simon Midgley, 32, and his partner Richard Dyson, 38, is being held at Paisley Sheriff Court and will look at issues around guest and fire safety at the five-AA-star hotel. It will determine whether any lessons can be learned to minimise the risk of future deaths but is not a criminal trial.

Dunbarton Sheriff Court heard in January last year that the fire started after night porter Christopher O’Malley emptied ash and embers from a fuel fire into a polythene bag, and then put it in a cupboard of kindling and newspapers.

At the Sheriff Court hearing hotel operator Cameron House Resort (Loch Lomond) Ltd admitted failing to take the necessary fire safety measures to ensure the safety of its guests and employees between January 14 2016 and December 18 2017 and was fined £500,000. O’Malley was given a community payback order.

The FAI, which began today (15 August), heard that post-mortem tests on both men found they died from inhalation of smoke fire gases, caused by the hotel fire.

Sheriff Thomas McCartney held a minute’s silence before a statement written by Jane Midgley, about her “gregarious” son was read to the inquiry.

She had written: “Losing a child is heart-breaking and I will never be able to come to terms with it or accept that Simon has gone. Every waking hour I live through what has happened that day, seeing Simon’s face.

“The thought of how he must have felt when he was trapped in that building, fighting to get out, tortures me. He must have been so frightened and I feel tremendous guilt that I was not there to help him.”

During the first day’s proceedings the FIA also heard from Darren Robinson, who was the hotel’s night manager at the time. He said fire and heat alarms were located across the property and explained what would happen if just one went off.

“It sets off a buzzer on the fire control panel situated at reception. Once that goes off I, as the night manager, have three minutes to get to the detection, investigate it, check if it was a false alarm of if anything was going on. After three minutes it would automatically go to a full alarm.”

Three weeks have been set aside for the FAI.